Scott Gimple is The Walking Dead's new showrunner

If you thought the third season of The Walking Dead was full of drama and surprises, season four will be no exception.

The show’s executive producer Scott M. Gimple will replace Glen Mazzara as the third showrunner, according to the Hollywood Reporter (THR).

Last December, AMC announced that Mazzara was leaving the zombie-survival series due to “a difference of opinion” about the shows direction.

AMC said in a statement last Friday, “This decision is amicable, and Glen will remain on for post-production on season 3B as showrunner and executive producer.”

Gimple, whose previous writing credits include NBC’s Chase and ABC’s FlashForward, joined Walking Dead as a producer in Season 2 and was promoted to supervising producer for the current third season. He has penned five Dead episodes, including this season’s penultimate episode, Hounded, and co-wrote the 10th episode with Mazzara.

When Mazzara was promoted to showrunner after Frank Darabont’s abrupt dismissal prior to the season two premiere, Mazzara named Gimple as his No. 2 choice.

Sources told THR that Mazzara’s shortcomings in running the series became “abundantly clear … especially for the second half of the season,” with production shut down several times due to lack of material.

Walking Dead is set to return with the second half of Season 3 on Sunday, February 10.